Tag Archives: media

All About the Score

Of all the major sports leagues, the best league in my opinion that has handled the delivery of media and timeless content is the NFL. The NFL Films branch of the NFL produces not only amazing behind the scenes documentaries of life on the gridiron, but the music score to the films is quite amazing. NFL Films was developed as an offshoot of the NFL in 1962, and has since then been heralded as producing astounding content – here are some of the great scores that have come out of NFL Films.

Main composer: David Robidoux

Old NFL Films theme music

Composer: Tom Hedden

Composer: Sam Spence – The Equalizer

Who would of thought that adding classical orchestra music to scenes of Football players running and smashing into each other would come off so well …

‘This’ is Hip-Hop

This must be from the late 80’s or early 90’s, but it is a video that teaches ‘hip-hop’ to white america. Now, ‘yes’ this is a badly produced video, but honestly, I think they had the best intentions.
Enjoy.

Racism, alive and well

This is just a reminder to those that thought just because there is a black president, doesn’t mean that America has fully dealt with their issue with racism. Rick Sanchez of CNN interviews a member of the ‘National Socialist’ party, embrace for some ‘interesting’ logic.

Chicken Cannibalism

An example of when an advertising concept is not thoroughly thought through – I get bringing the classic Looney Toons carton characters, but how do you have the Chicken in the cartoon discussing about eating other chickens? Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has been known to create bad TV ads, and this is just another one to that long list.

The Google Ad

Google is not one to make TV ads, but this year they decided to get into the mix – while usual SuperBowl Ad companies like Pepsico have decided to pass up the SuperBowl Ad nauseum (strange reversal of fortunes).

Table of contents for Analogies

Funny Double Entendre’s, pt 2

All about ambiguity
Part 2 of the ‘Funny Double Entendre’ series (check pt.1 here), this time these are some funny newspaper headlines that are in a desperate need for an edit. The main literal problem with these headlines is the ambiguity in some of the word(s) – without the proper context, the headlines have multiple meanings.
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Include Your Children When Baking Cookies

– the ambiguity lies in whether we put our children in the oven with the cookies, sounds like circa 1940’s Nazi Germany
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Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say

– really? Could the fact that jet crashed already lead one to a conclusion that ‘something went wrong?’
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Drunks Get Nine Months in Violin Case

– ‘Nine Months’ need to be explained – are the drunks put inside the violin case for a pregnancy term?
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If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last a While

– Captain Obvious to the rescue!
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Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

– newspaper headlines should be ran by at least three different copy editors

Beyond 2D Imagination

Playboy’s smartest move

Marge Simpson will be on the cover for the November 2009 issue for the iconic magazine Playboy. One way to generate interest into a dying medium & publication is to blur the lines of reality – so kudos to Playboy for accomplishing buzz and pushing the imagination of many to actually contemplate what is under that green dress (insert joke here). This issue can spawn Playboy’s competitors to think of other crazy issues, such as Cartman’s mother from South Park in Hustler, or even Lois from the Family Guy — the sky is the limit.

Here are also some other interesting derivations of the iconic cartoon mother

Women in Mainstream Film

I thought these guys did a pretty good job in identifying gender stereotypes in popular films. Kudos, but they didn’t really offer a solution, but c’est la vie. A good watch rather than watching some gangsta try to shoot up Youtube.

tan(012) – Death Squads, Happy People, Work Whispers

Preamble: Been kind of light on the tangents, not that sh*t isn’t pissing me off, I guess I am just controlling what does and does not piss me off. Its a slow curve to equilibrium, but I’m gettin gthere.

Quiet Whispers

It always humors me when I am at work, and their will be two people talking regularly, then suddenly they creep away from you and their voices become softer and then non-coherent. This is done for one or two reasons; first reason would be that the conversation has suddenly changed to the topic of ‘you’ or someone that is close to ‘you’. The second reason would be is that they are talking about something that is ‘socially inappropriate’ at work. Either or, my whole thing is that I could really not be interested in what they have to say – I really don’t give a f**k. Even if you are talking about me or not, you are so irrelevant from my world that the best thing that I can say, well, what I WISH I could say, is by the great lyricist Styles P in a bar, “I don’t give a f–k who you are, so F–K who you are!”. Yup, that sums it up definitively.

Death Squads

The healthcare debate in the U.S. is very tense; as many people (as they should be) have passionate opinions on the current state of healthcare and where it should go. Obama’s plan is getting not so favorable reviews from both Democrats & Republicans alike, and at the Town Hall meetings, tempers are high – with many people shouting, pushing, and even fighting each other. The Republicans, along with their media outlet (Fox News) are pushing an interesting rhetoric, such as “Death Squads”, and “let’s take back our country”, and proclaiming that Obama and his goonies are socialists. Glenn Beck, the actor/news reporter (that was an intentional ‘/’ used to describe him) is even making arguments to compare the Obama administration to Nazi Germany. Below, are some funny and telling clips of how media, if not followed closely, can easily mislead and persuade a masses – it also shows double speak. Double speak is the fine art of:
“language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs) or deliberate ambiguity.”

Happy People
When I say ‘happy people’, I am referring to those that always have a smile on their face; they are always grinning from ear to ear. In the morning, afternoon, the night, during the cold winters, and the scorching heat – always smiling. What is up with that? Maybe I am just grumpy, but I feel some sort of hateration when I see these individuals; as I am secretly wishing to bask in what they are projecting. However, I take solace in the fact that what they are projecting is probably a mask to cover up something else, so I justify my hate, and I am content with that.

Verifying the Unverified Reports for Confirmation

The role of sources in a lightning fast news environment

With the whole aftermath of the passing of the King of Music (no, not ‘King of Pop’, King of Music mofo’s), on June 25, 2009, there will sure be a debate on the issue of ‘unconfirmed’ and ‘confirmed’ reports/sources. Like everyone, I started to receive txt msgs, Blackberry messages, tweets about Michael Jackson being hospitalized; so immediately I wanted validation, my first instinct was to tune to CNN. At CNN they had confirmed that he was hospitalized, in parallel, TMZ was reporting he had already passed via their ‘unconfirmed report’. The BBC, CBC, all rushed to change graphics to that he was ‘dead’, and they cited ‘unconfirmed reports’. However, CNN didn’t follow suit; they did mention the ‘unconfirmed report’, but they always followed up with “CNN has not confirmed”. At this time, BET was already dedicating 106 & Park to MJ, Fox News was saying he passed; all based on an ‘unconfirmed report'; now allegedly not from TMZ, but from the L.A. Times (where their site went down due to traffic).

Unconfirmed vs Confirmed

I deduce that an ‘unconfirmed report’ is little more than ‘hearsay’ or ‘gossip'; originating from someone that is not an ‘official’ or ‘professional’, or has not been validated by secondary and/or external sources. As like many, I was flipping news sources to see any variations and/or similarities in the coverage, then something happened that cemented why CNN can really stand by the moniker ‘The Most Trusted Name in News’, CNN’s I-hate-immigrant-workers Lou Dobbs personality chick had a live interview with the L.A. Coroner’s office that gave the official statement – confirming the ‘unconfirmed’. Of course, as we have all found out, the ‘unconfirmed report’ was accurate
This is important in an ultra fast paced news dimension of tweets, internet, and cable news where information travels lightning quick; one’s sources are paramount in lending validity. I am sure CNN felt mounting pressure to follow their cable news network peers, but doing so would of undermine their journalistic integrity – as I am sure for many news networks and websites, the goal was to get the information first versus getting the information that was correct & confirmed. I have a new respect for CNN as they have help protect the journalism community, as with life as it is with journalism, “A man is nothing without his word”, exchange the obvious with ‘news organization’ and ‘sources’.